AKB48 management has announced that AKB48 will not be holding a Senbatsu this year.

There was an announcement done where AKB48 management thanked everyone for their support and mentioned that the AKB48 group will continue to work hard to become a group that fans will want to support.

The reason why they have decided to stop the already 10 year tradition is unknown.

There is some speculation by some fans that this move is due to the NGT48 issues involving Yamaguchi Miho’s assault. The many managerial problems related to the handling of the problem seem like a likely cause for why AKB48 would want to stay quiet for some time. Of course, this paragraph is purely speculation from my end so don’t take it as fact.

This is a rather interesting move that leaves a lot of questions for AKB48 fans. Will the new single feature the same lineup as last year? Will there be another way to find the members? Will we get a Senbatsu next year or are the elections just done?

We’ll find out soon enough, but for now we’ll have to see how this affects the upcoming single. since fans buying multiple copies of the singles in hopes of getting their favorite member to the top often helped sales figures.